Strange things happened in the second period between Zac Rinaldo and the Rangers’ Dan Carcillo, who now plays the same instigator role Sean Avery used to for the Rangers.

The two were jawing in this one. Rinaldo even gave Carcillo a few gloves to the face and both went off the ice with unsportsmanlike conduct penalties at 6:32 of the second period, in which the Rangers played very well against the Flyers.

Five seconds after they came out of the box, they went at each other again with Rinaldo dropping his gloves but Carcillo refusing to drop his stick.

Back to box, no fight, and 10-minute misconducts for each. And that’s all we heard from them the rest of the game in a 4-2 win for the Flyers (see recap).

It's not like Carcillo to back down from a fight.

“I don’t know what he was thinking,” Rinaldo said. “I have no idea and I can’t speak on his behalf, but I was ready to go, clearly. I dropped my gloves, but he didn’t want a part of it I guess.

“I think me hitting him [with a hard check] pissed him off a little bit, but we won the game and that’s all that matters. So it’s kudos to us.”

They were laughing at each other at one point behind the net before the first penalty. Friends?

“No, if I see him I’ll say ‘What’s up?’ and shake his hand, but I have never played with him,” Rinaldo said. “I never played against him. That’s the first time I played against him.”